I refer to the Times of Malta article titled ‘Institutionalised lawlessness’ authored by the opinionist Justin Schembri on February 17, 2020.

The article is yet another one authored by this opinionist who continuously seeks to undermine and tarnish the good reputation and hard work of Mcast as one of the leading educational institutions in this country.

Schembri seems to paint a picture of an institution where all staff and students are continuously highly demotivated and working in “Soviet-style” conditions. However, Schembri once again fails to substantiate these claims by concrete examples – the reason being that the allegations are untrue and unfounded and therefore cannot be substantiated.

The claim that Mcast entrusts decisions to a handful of managers is unfounded. Mcast continuously seeks the input of both lecturers and students in all its academic decisions.

Although it is true that, for a time, the Board of Studies was not convened, decisions of academic importance had at the time been taken by the Council of the Institutes, which is a higher authority in the Mcast hierarchy and which includes the participation of both academic staff and students.

The Education Act mentions the participation of heads of departments in convening the Board of Studies. Yet it does not define the role of the said heads of departments. In this respect, Mcast has gone above and beyond the requisites of the Education Act and has not only given the said heads of departments a higher status when putting them into grades of deputy directors, but has also introduced the concept of Institute Vocational Coordinators whose function is to supervise a group of courses in the particular institute in order to ensure that the correct standard is being constantly attained.

The implication that the Institute directors are somewhat unqualified is uncalled for and nothing short of a lie which undermines not only the personal reputation of the institute directors but also that of the institution as a whole.

While it is correct to state that most institute directors are not in possession of a PhD qualification, all have a Master’s level qualification (in some cases more than one) and both deputy principals to whom the said directors are answerable hold PhDs.

Mcast is undoubtedly a success story

Furthermore, it must be kept in mind that Mcast is a professional and vocational institution and hence the constant comparison to academic institutions is futile and misleading. The term University College only referred to the fact that the Mcast can now offer MQF 6 and MQF 7 qualifications and at no point did the Mcast issue any certificate under the emblem of a University College.

In terms of the new Research Framework, the various statements regarding a nine-member early research committee are complete untruths. This early pilot committee set up years ago ran for less than two years and failed to make any headway into launching research for the 500 academics working full-time at Mcast. This pilot committee only managed to go as far as to pilot research hours with four handpicked academics.

It is comical that the word ‘lawlessness’ is used, when it is only now that a formal Research Framework has been applied with adequate checks and balances, well guided under operating procedures that are available for all to access, and carefully overseen by a newly recruited team of six highly qualified senior research officers and a research director.

It is this new full-time dedicated team that oversees all research and reports to the Mcast Applied Research and Innovation Centre, working hand-in-hand with the six institutes that are ultimately responsible for this research resource.

Under the new framework, each and every lecturer within Mcast is granted the opportunity to carry out research and, when it is the case, the lecturer concerned can have a number of teaching hours substituted with research hours.

One must note that, notwithstanding the few months since the launch of the new Research Framework, over 40 lecturers have already taken on active research and are utilising research hours, over 30 lecturers are following the Mcast Masters in Research, and the Mcast Research Journal has gone biannual for the very first time.

Naturally, the process needs to be monitored and supervised as it would be utterly irresponsible of an institution to lessen the teaching load and then not ensure that research hours are being utilised for the betterment of both the individual and the institution.

In his article, Schembri laments the fact that Mcast has constantly refused and could not answer his “persistent questions” regarding Mcast’s status as an institution. This claim is slanderous at best.

Not only has the Mcast answered Schembri’s allegations time and time again through various newspaper articles, which he has published without making the necessary verifications, but a team from Mcast, which included the principal and CEO himself, personally met with Schembri in a meeting which lasted just over an hour during which Schembri was given all the explanations and answers he required.

Furthermore, Schembri has also refused a direct invitation by the deputy principal R&I to join him in interactions with researchers, and has not even tried to communicate, meet up, or check his facts before pasting these on the media. 

Mcast is undoubtedly a success story which began as an experiment and has today flourished into an institution which is home to 12,000 students.

It is a pity that articles such as Schembri’s, in an attempt to push a personal agenda without the necessary verification, undermine all the good and dedicated work which is constantly taking place and the good reputation of all concerned, especially the 500 academics who have only now been given the chance to extend their professional reach into the much-needed applied research realm.

James Calleja is principal and CEO of Mcast.